I suppose all those doomsday scenario's you list have some shred of truth. But given we somehow survived a few decades of the US and Russia pointing thousands of nuclear warheads at each other, I have a faith that whatever can be done with self destructing phones won't necessarily mean it will be done.

This is currently a great concern among folks that are raising the caution flag of a government mandated smartphone "kill switch". The tinfoil hat crowd claim evil government forces will use it to suppress organized civil disobedience movements. The security crowd fear hackers will gain access and cripple the economy by destroying millions of smart phones. The conspiracy crowd, who believe the twin towers were destroyed by our own government, believe the Apples and Samsungs of the world will pay hackers to drive sales of replacement devices.

This will be an interesting technology wrinkle to watch -- especially when it becomes commercially viable. Imagine being at a restaurant and your spouse/boss/wiseguy friend finds and executes the self-destruct code and your phone melts down right at the table. Meanwhile, it's hard not to recall the mysterious ways Jim Phelp's Mission Impossible messages used to self destruct on the old hit TV series. Funny it's taken so long to develop something comparable for smart phones.